Recently, I just made an Archer build for the Rogue class in Diablo 4. And I called this build, the Cold Sniper, which revolves around skills that chill enemies Passive Skills and Marksman Skills.
This is a level 50 build, which means you need to buy Diablo 4 Gold to make this build quickly. Believe me, it must be worth it. Because your Rogue will get a build that is both fun and high damage.
Sill Tree
Let’s first take a look at the skill tree of this build.
First, let’s start with the basic skill. I allocated one point to Puncture and pick both Enhanced and Fundamental Puncture. This makes enemies vulnerable and throws three blades in a spread. Vulnerable enemies also take 20% of increased damage, which is great.
For core skills, I picked two Marksman Skills. This is because I’ll be using both depending on the size of the enemy group I’m facing. For larger groups, I will use Rapid Fire. For Elites, Champions, and Bosses, I will use Penetrating Shot, which deals with more damage and is better for single or fewer targets.
That is why I maximize both skills. Rapid Fire can return 15 Energy if it hits vulnerable enemies and Penetrating Shot increases its damage per enemy it pierces. And having both skills, we make the gameplay more fun as they excel in different combat situations.
For agility skills, I maximized Weapon Mastery to increase the damage to my bow. I also picked Caltrops and upgraded to Methodical Caltrops. Now, they deal cold damage and chill enemies. I will be dealing more damage to chill enemies, which I will talk about later.
In the subterfuge skills section, I picked and maximized Concealment. And I chose both upgrades (Concealment & Countering Concealment). Concealment is great because it makes me Unstoppable for 4 seconds gives me 40 Energy. And my next skill, Countering Concealment will have a Critical Strike.
I allocated three points to Exploit for increased damage against Healthy and injured enemies. This skill works great in combination with Concealment, Caltrops and Weapon Mastery.
In the imbuement skills, I naturally picked the Cold Imbuement. I maximized everything in this section. My cold skills will deal 20% increased damage to enemies that are crowd controlled, which includes all enemies in the Caltrops. And if they are frozen, they will take 40% increased damage. This is why it shows Caltrops that deal with cold damage.
I also maximize the passive skills by using my Diablo 4 Gold. Frigid Finesse makes my cold skills deal 15% increased damage to chilled enemies and 30% of frozen enemies. Then, we have Chilling Weight, which further reduces Movement Speed for chilled enemies. And, finally, there’s Precision Imbuement, which gives me an increased Critical Strike chance.
For the ultimate skill, I chose only passives. I picked the Adrenaline Rush for increased Energy Regeneration. I chose Haste, which provides passive Movement Speed or Attack Speed, depending on how much Energy I have left. Also, I chose Impetus, which gives me over 20% increased damage on my next attack after moving 15 meters.
Finally, for key passives, I picked Precision, which gives me increased Critical Strike Damage every time I land a Critical Strike. This means you essentially stack up Precision points and when you reach maximum Precision, your next Marksman Skill will guarantee a Critical Strike with 40% Critical Strike Damage. This passive ability can deal with a significant amount of damage when combined with cold skills.
What Can I Do With This Build?
So for this build, the first thing I would do is set traps on enemies, fire some puncture to make them vulnerable. And when they enter a trap, I will activate Cold Imbuement, then Concealment and cast Rapid Fire to guarantee a Critical Strike on a large group of enemies and Diablo 4 Items.
I will follow up with another round of Rapid Fire and it should deal a lot of damage and eliminate the crowd. But if I’m facing Elites, Champions, or Bosses, I will use Penetrating Shot instead.
Considering all the passives I picked that give me increased damage, this build should deal lots of damage. The point of this build is to trap enemies and go in as a Cold Sniper. So, I’ll trap enemies, imbuild myself, and then fire. And if Concealment is available, I’ll use it before I fire.
I think this would be a fun build to play. I might change Rapid Fire for Rain of Arrows if I find legendaries that reduces the cooldown of this skill. Because it’s also effective against a large group of enemies. If I can get the cooldown down to 20 seconds, I might replace Rapid Fire. But in the beginning, I would stick to the core skills.
That’s all for the Cold Sniper build. It’s a strong and fun Archer build to play. If you like to play Rogue, you might as well try this build first. I guarantee you will be very pleasantly surprised!